THE ANGELS – Talk The Talk

Published on January 25th, 2014

Album review: The Angels – Talk The Talk
By ALISON HOSIE
I WAS given Talk the Talk, The Angels’ latest album to review and I must admit, I was pretty excited to give it a listen. I haven’t been keeping up with music of late and so I was a little stunned to learn Doc Neeson had declined to do pub tours with the rest of the band for their anniversary tour.However, not knowing this information I eagerly hit play expecting the unmistakable voice of Doc. What I found was something familiar but something that was not quite The Angels. I listened to the whole 12 songs, confused.
It reminded me of that classic pub rock sound that The Angels have sported for four decades but something was definitely different. It was like they had suddenly been influenced by The Screaming Jets. Funny thing that!! Thanks to trusty Google, I found out what has been going on and it turns out, the lead on this anniversary album is Dave Gleeson who once fronted the mighty Jets!
Here were two classic sounds thrown together – rhythmic, hard-hitting riffs from The Angels’ reminiscent of old hits like “No Secrets” and “We’ve Gotta Get out of This Place” but without the punchy vocals. This is mixed with the essence of The Jets’ second album, Tear of Thought a confronting yet more subtle album than their debut, All for One) but again, something was different.
“Got a Feeling” came on and I thought ‘very Oz Rock BUT kind of bluesy or border-line country rock’. And once again, this is the feel they were after – pub rock meets blues rock. Did they succeed? Yes.
Talk the Talk is an album fans of either band could listen to once the confusion dies down. In saying this, I give a warning: both bands had some pretty big “anthem” songs in the past. DO NOT expect that from any of this album.
I have taken a few days to actually decide I do like this album – ‘like’, not love. There are political messages through many of the songs such as “Nations are Falling” and “Every Man” – this song I found myself singing away to, very catchy.
Then there is Dave’s quirky humour peeking through, similar to but not as “forward” as the days of The Jets, in songs such as “Broken Windows” and “Personal Thing”.
I agree that this is pub rock and Dave is no bore live so it would probably be best experienced in that environment. Keep an open mind and this album isn’t too bad. I give “Talk the Talk” three skulls from five – as I said, it’s missing an anthem song which Dave Gleeson, Rick and John Brewster are more than capable of writing.